New book explores images of Egypt in Roman domestic spaces

Photo right: Garden triclinium (outdoor dining benches) at the Casa dell’Efebo, a wealthy house in Pompeii. Paintings of Egyptian landscapes decorate the sides of the benches where people once reclined to dine, and an artificial canal once flowed between the benches. (Photo by Caitlín Barrett)

A new book from Caitlín Barrett, associate professor of Classics, explores the reasons why many people in Pompeii chose to use Egyptian imagery in their household spaces.

Part of the connection between the Romans and Egypt centers on conquest – Rome conquered Egypt in 30 BC – but Egypt and the Greco-Roman world also had deep trade and diplomatic connections that began with Egyptian-Aegean interactions in the Bronze Age. The Egyptian empire was formerly one of the most powerful states of the Mediterranean world.

“I’m interested in cross-cultural connections and encounters with the Other in antiquity,” Barrett said. “We think of these cultural groups — the Egyptians, the Romans, the Greeks —as though they belong in neat little self-contained boxes, but that’s not how it was. They were part of extensive networks of trade, knowledge exchange, and cultural exchange.”

For her work on this book, Barrett examined paintings, mosaics, and statuettes preserved in the Naples Museum (including many objects not on public view and visible only with special permission) and visited more than 30 buildings throughout the Archeological Park of Pompeii, some open to the public and others she had to get special permission to enter. Because of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79, which buried the city in tons of volcanic ash, Pompeii is one of the most well-preserved sites for archaeologists to learn more about the ancient world.

“When we see ancient paintings in museums today, we can sometimes forget that they weren’t originally intended for museum viewing,” she said. “In their original settings, these frescoes were very much part of daily life – they decorated the walls of people’s houses, especially gardens. Some even covered the sides of outdoor dining benches, so people would have lain down on them as they ate! I want to put these images back in context.”

Closeup of one of the paintings from the Casa dell’Efebo dining benches. The painting depicts an Egyptian landscape with a temple (containing a statue of Isis), an obelisk and a worshipper making offerings at an altar. (Photo by Caitlín Barrett)

For example, in some houses, a canal used to irrigate a garden was actually bordered by paintings showing the banks of the Nile, as if the canal were itself representing the great river.

Pompeiian residents of this time, Barrett said, would have learned about Egypt through various avenues: reading, travel, imported religious practices, or, most often, consumer goods such as bronze and terracotta figurines, lamps, amulets, vessels, and textiles.

“At this time, Romans thought of Egyptian imagery – like Greek art – as appropriate decoration for a cultured, cosmopolitan person’s house,” she said. “So if you wanted to present yourself as a sophisticated person who knows a lot about the world, displaying your knowledge of Egypt – or your ownership of Egyptian-looking objects – could be a good way to go.”

Barrett said when she’s on a site, she likes to think of people actually inhabiting those spaces.

“I’m interested in people in the past and what their lives can tell us about our own lives,” she said. “How did their experience of empire compare to our experience today? Or their experience of globalization? If we look at how people dealt with these issues in the past, we can draw on their experiences to make our own choices today.”